The present invention relates to an automatic processing machine (hereinafter referred to also as an automatic processor) for a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material (hereinafter referred to also as a light-sensitive material), and more specifically, to a device of dissolving and replenishing solid processing agents that supplies solid processing agents to the automatic processor mentioned above.
In recent years, Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 127341/1993 (hereinafter referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I Publication) and others disclose, from the viewpoint of laborsaving for operators, a means for dissolving solid processing agents used for processing silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials. The device described in the above-mentioned official gazette is a device for preparing a replenisher by dissolving processing agents of a powder type automatically and for supplying the replenisher to an automatic processing machine, emphasizing that operations of operators can be reduced because processing agents are dissolved automatically.
However, in the case of the aforementioned dissolving device wherein a large quantity of replenishers are normally prepared through dissolving at a time, when a processing volume per day is small, for example, the replenishers are forced to stay in a dissolving tank for a long time and thereby are deteriorated by aerial oxidation because a quantity of color developing replenishers prepared already to be supplied to an automatic processor is small. Therefore, replenishers deteriorated gradually are supplied to the automatic processor, which has proved to have problems that photographic performance is deteriorated and oxidized developing agents stick to light-sensitive material, causing smudge thereon and unstable processing characteristics.
In addition to the above, it is impossible to replenish a replenisher solution that is being dissolved while the replenisher is being prepared. Therefore, replenishment is suspended. When the replenishment suspension time is long, continuous processing is suspended and thereby the working property is deteriorated remarkably. For the problems mentioned above, Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 127341/1993 discloses a technology wherein a dissolving device is equipped with a reservoir tank for a prepared replenisher. However, this technology still has a problem that a dissolving device itself needs to be large in size because a dissolving tank and a reservoir tank are provided separately.
For the purpose of shortening the replenishment suspension time, on the other hand, it can be considered that the solubility of solid processing agents is enhanced. When physical characteristics of solid processing agents are considered, however, there is a limit for the shortening of dissolving time. Another means for shortening the replenishment suspension time is to reduce an amount of dissolving. However, a reduction of dissolving amount leads to an increase in dissolving (replenishing) frequencies, which increases a load for an operator on the contrary.
For those problems mentioned above, Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 119454/1993, 113646/1993 and 107698/1993 disclose a method wherein solid processing agents are supplied directly to a processing tank of an automatic processor for replenishment. Owing to the aforementioned method wherein solid processing agents are replenished directly to the processing tank, an operator is freed from the work of preparing replenishers, and problems in processing caused by deterioration of replenishers created by decreasing replenishers are solved.
However, when the aforementioned method is intended to be applied to a conventional automatic processor, not only a solid processing agent supplying device directly to the automatic processor and a precision device for controlling the supply of solid processing agents are required to be installed newly but also large-scale modification of the automatic processor is needed for the installation of the two mentioned above. This may be a burden for both a user and a manufacturer of the automatic processor. Further, a method for controlling the supply of solid processing agents varies depending upon automatic processors including physical characteristics of each solid processing agent, a supplying method, specifications of the automatic processor. Therefore, controlling devices and dissolving devices both in several types are needed, which cause an increase in production cost and are not desirable.